Visions of color flooded my eyes; a sensation of being liquefied; a feeling of moving through space-time.

And then I was standing.

Taking a moment to reorient myself, I looked around. I was in a city on a completely different part of the island. It reminded me of the portal paintings that Princess Peach kept locked up in her Castle.

I had little time to think, however; Shadow Mario was escaping into the hills. I began to run after him, but soon found myself slipping and sliding down a watery slope that dumped me into a small river.

I climbed onto the river bank and looked around, but Shadow Mario was nowhere to be found. "Oh, Spaghetti!" I exclaimed.

I needed to find him, I just needed to. For the sake of justice.

I looked up to FLUDD. "FLUDD, where am I?"

FLUDD perked up, then scanned around. "Sources tell me that this is Bianco Hills."

"What sources?"

"That sign over there."

I looked, and indeed saw a sign welcoming visitors to Bianco Hills. "Oh."

Suddenly, FLUDD let out a siren noise. "Shine detected! Shine detected!" He pointed his nozzle in the direction of a wall that separated the area from another. Collecting Shines was part of my sentence, so I decided to go look for it.

I skillfully leapt over the wall and into a larger field, where I saw a lot of paint on the ground. I groaned.

"Might I make a suggestion?" FLUDD piped up. "Spin while repeatedly tapping the right trigger to clear out large areas around you quickly."

"Thanks, FLUDD!" I began to do so, and the water sprayed out all around me, quickly clearing a large portion of the paint.

But quickly, I had to stop, because I had gotten dizzy. "Mama Mia, I'd better stop before I lose my lunch!"

"Illogical. It is 08:25; you have not had lunch yet."

"It's just an expression meaning 'before I throw up'."

"Understood. Adding 'before I lose my lunch' to sayings database."

I chuckled. I didn't know why, but I found FLUDD to be kinda quirky.

I continued to spray away the paint until I reached a bridge with a large coagulation of the stuff in front of it. The paint shuddered at the water, then formed into another Paint Piranha Plant. I shot into its mouth, and it disintegrated. The paint in the surrounding area evaporated, and a golden sun-like item came from the resting place of the paint beast.

"Shine! Shine!" FLUDD called out repeatedly.

"I'm guessing that's a Shine." I said sarcastically.

FLUDD stopped repeating. "Excuse me, I must've short-circuited. What I meant was, 'Shine found. Good job, Mario'."

I chuckled, then took the Shine in my hand. A surge of energy flowed through me, and I couldn't help but pull a pose and shout, "Oh yeah!"

Then unexpectedly, the Shine started lifting me upwards. I clung on for dear life as we soared through the sky, straight back to Delfino Plaza. It booted me off just next to the statue, then started to float towards the Shine Gate.

"Mario!" Toadsworth and Peach ran up to me. "What happened to you? Where'd he go?"

"I think I was transported to another city…"

"Really?" Peach was intrigued. "That sounds like the —"

"The paintings locked away in your castle, I know."

Suddenly, it became a bit brighter. I looked at the Shine Gate and saw the Shine I'd collected now swirling around it, clearing away some of the darkness.

Suddenly, a large mitt-like hand tapped my shoulder. I turned and saw one of the cops standing behind me. "Who said you could laze around? Get back to work!"

"Officer," Toadsworth began, "Did you not see the Shadow Mario run through town, Princess Peach in tow?"

"No, I didn't. And frankly, I don't believe you, so please don't talk back to me." And with that, he left.

"My, what an unpleasant fellow…" Toadsworth stated.

I just sighed, and continued to clear away the paint.